Victoire Pisa

Victoire Pisa is a retired Japanese Thoroughbred racehorse and active sire. After winning three of his four starts as a juvenile, the colt won the Satsuki Shō at Nakayama Racecourse in April 2010. After an unsuccessful campaign in Europe he returned to Japan to win the weight-for-age invitational Arima Kinen in December. In the following spring he was sent to Dubai where he raced for the first time on a synthetic track in the Dubai World Cup. He defeated an international field to become the first Japanese-trained horse to win the world's most valuable race. His subsequent career was restricted by injury problems and he was retired at the end of 2011. Background Victoire Pisa is a dark bay horse bred at the Shadai Farm in Hokkaido. His sire Neo Universe, a son of the thirteen-time leading sire in Japan Sunday Silence, was a successful Japanese performer, winning the Satsuki Shō and the Tokyo Yūshun, the first two legs of the Japanese Triple Crown in 2003. At stud he has sired the Satsuki Shō winner Unrivaled and the Tokyo Yūshun winner Logi Universe. Victoire Pisa's dam Whitewater Affair was a successful British racehorse who won the John Porter Stakes and the Prix de Pomone as a four-year-old in 1997. At stud in Britain she bred the Yasuda Kinen winner Asakusa Denen, and was then exported to Japan where her other foals included the Group Three winner Swift Current. The colt was prepared for racing by Katsuhiko Sumii, the trainer of Delta Blues and Vodka. Racing career 2009: two-year-old season Victoire Pisa opened his racing career with three races at Kyoto Racecourse in late 2009. On 25 October he ran in a nine furlong event for unraced horses in which he finished second to Rose Kingdom, a colt who went on to win the Japan Cup. Two weeks later he recorded his first win in a ten furlong maiden race. On 28 November Victoire Pisa started the 1/2 favourite for the Kyoto Nisai Stakes and won by one and a half lengths. On his final start of the year he was moved up in class for the domestic Group Three Radio Nikkei Hai Nisai Stakes at Hanshin Racecourse on 26 December. Starting the 3/5 favourite he took the lead near the finish and won by a neck from Cosmo Phantom.